Resonance - Joakim Vars Nilsen

November 22, 2009

Don´t do Social Media. Make media that is social.

Dom Rodwell, @domrodwell, has a great presentation saying you should use social media to extend your product experience.

"In social media, repetition is just noise." Looking forward to when brands fully realize this.

And Ajaz Ahmed from AKQA says it perfectly "Marketing and product have converged. The consumer doesn´t separate the marketing experience from the product experience."

<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_2544913">Screw The Internet

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November 20, 2009

Fantastic! It´s been a while since I´ve been so impressed...

You just need to download and check out this program. A long, long time since I have encountered such a awesome product. What is it?

It´s called Ommwriter and you can download it here: http://www.rubbishcorp.com/ommwriter/

It´s a simple text processor that makes writing a pleasure once again. You have a beautiful background environment, different sounds and what not. It is inspiring. It´s meditative. It´s just amazing. Regarding what not... well, I hope this is just the start. That you can create your own background images, sounds, the fonts you want etc. But it´s a great start. Thumbs up!

Rubbishcorp says it best: "

Ommwriter is a humble attempt to recapture what technology has snatched away from us today: our capacity to concentrate"

Thanks @inahill for link :)

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November 10, 2009

66% of norwegians online use a social networking site - 63% do NOT want targeted ads.

Sintef, the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia, just released an interesting report from Norway. Key findings;

SOCIAL NETWORKING & FACEBOOK

> 66% of Norwegians online use a social networking site in 2009 vs 53% in 2008 (74% female - 59% men)

> 51-60 is the fastest growing segment in use of social networking sites. 52% in 2009 vs 31% in 2008

> 96% of all 15-30 online is using a social networking site

> 60% use Facebook 2009 vs 44% 2008

> 35% use FB daily (15-75)

> 69% of 15-30 use FB daily

> 49% have more than 100 friends

> 69% females updated their status vs 48% of men.

> People over 40 are quiz maniacs

TWITTER

> 9% on Twitter in 2009

USERS

> 14% are worried about misuse of personal information as reason to NOT use a social networking site

> 94% believes it is important to have control over perosnal information

> 67% are worried about the concequences of sharing personal information

> 63% do not appreciate targeted ads

> 58% believe they have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by commercial companies.

A person does what other persons in their network do. If everybody else is giving away details and using Facebook, then ok I´ll do it to. Still we´re worried, and do not understand the terms.

The full report (in norwegian): http://www.sintef.no/Presserom/Forskningsaktuelt/Svekket-personvern-gjennom-Facebook/

Click here to download:

66_of_norwegians_online_use_a_.zip (153 KB)

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November 5, 2009

Google vs Facebook. Google doesn’t have a networking hub to draw us into, so what’s in it for Google?

Douglas Rushkoff latest post at daily beast is covering the battle between Google vs Facebook, a fight I have been posting regularly about. In my opinion it´s a data vs people fight - numbers vs human, but Rushkoff has a less optimistic view on the future.

Excerpts from article:

Google´s battle with Facebook might come with collateral damage: your real-life friendships.

Google announced this week that it is putting a few new bells and whistles on its Friend Connect software. Users visiting sites that have the application installed will be able to fill out little profiles of themselves and see the profiles of others who have been there. Presumably, regular visitors of the same sites will seek each other out based on shared opinions and preferences. And make friends. Think of it as Facebook functionality without the Facebook.

The real difference between the two services is the intention of the companies behind them. Facebook has extended its functionality onto the Web in order to draw us back onto Facebook. Google doesn’t have a networking hub to draw us into, so what’s in it for the search giant?

The most important (but last to be mentioned) upgrade to Google’s Friend Connect is a feature that allows Web sites to target advertisements to individuals based on their Friend Connect profiles. No, Google isn’t really providing us access to each other. It’s providing advertisers with better access to each of us.

Putting Google’s application on your site means your ads could work better and you’ll get more money. Which do you think most bloggers are going to choose?

So who is going to win? Google, of course. And it’s not because the company is better at social. It’s because Google is better at making money, and helping others do so.

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November 5, 2009

New study: People's growing embrace of technology has NOT come at the expense of close human connections.

However, the study, done by Pew Internet and American Life Project, finds that the group of people you count on being able to confide in has gotten smaller. It´s down to about two people instead of three, but says it´s not the internet´s fault you have fewer good friends.

It´s a short study, and I have not got my hands on the full report. It nevertheless raises some questions. Are more friends equivalent to fewer closer friends? Is the cause of this the time spent maintaining a large network? Does a large network decrease the need for number of close friends? And not at least, is a social networking presence on the web decreasing the need for a religious belief?

Internet use leads to more diverse networks - by Barbara Ortutay

NEW YORK (AP) - A new study confirms what your 130 Facebook friends and scores of Twitter followers may have already told you: The Internet and mobile phones are not linked to social isolation.

Online activities such as e-mail, blogging and frequenting Internet hangouts can even lead to larger, more diverse social networks, according to the study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The study refutes research earlier in the decade suggesting that people's growing embrace of technology has come at the expense of close human connections.

"Social isolation has not changed that much since 1985," said Keith Hampton, the main author of the study professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. This means that very few adults - 6 percent of the population - say they have no one to talk to about important matters in their lives.

The 2008 survey of 2,512 adults did find that Americans' core discussion networks - that group of people you count on being able to confide in - has gotten smaller in the past two decades. It's down, on average, to about two people instead of three. They've also become less diverse because they contain fewer friends and more family members.

This trend, however, was not linked to the use technology. It's not the Internet's fault you have fewer good friends.

The Internet also hasn't pulled people away from public places like parks, cafes and restaurants - just the opposite.

The study, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points and accounted for differences because of age, education and other factors, also found that people now tend to use cell phones more than landlines to stay in touch with closest family and friends.

In fact, people now text these close friends and family members as much as they use traditional landline phones, about 125 days out of the year.

Face-to-face contact is still the primary way people keep in touch. The average person sees each member in their close group of confidants 210 days out of the year. If they have a cell phone, they call each person in that group on 195 days.

Another interesting tidbit: Users of social networking Web sites are 40 percent more likely to visit a bar, but 36 percent less likely to visit a religious institution than those who shun Facebook, MySpace and the like.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15897/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=5EF3FF8AB58EB8D79C5E3D98F7A6DB91?full=true&contentguid=dmdzR3zj&detailindex=#display

EDIT: And here´s the full report: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18--Social-Isolation-and-New-Technology.aspx?r=1

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November 3, 2009

Why, and how, successful brands are switching from brand-centric to audience-centric behaviour.

Here´s 3 presentations that rounds up history, how and why the marketplace has changed - and how to succeed.

Power Of People - Why empowering people is key in marketing. A presentation on the market change.

<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_1490106">Power Of People

The Why And How Of Media Arts - How people´s behavior change the way brands will do marketing. By Michal Zorn, TBWA Berlin. A presentation that aims to cover it all. Lots of great quotes, stats and valuable input. Highly recommended round up.

<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_1566683">The Audience Is Always Right

Walk The Talk - How to market for a sustainable business model. A presentation focusing on how to succeed in the new marketplace.

<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_2029443">Walk The Talk

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November 3, 2009

How´s the pulse of your brand via @freshpeel

Great deck on having a pulse as a brand by @freshpeel talking about how small touches in social media impact the heartbeat of your brand.

<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_2398074">Micro Pulse: How small touches in social media impact the heartbeat of your brand.

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October 30, 2009

The future for brands on the Social Web. Response to @briansolis

Brian Solis, @briansolis, has an excellent post on The Future of the Social Web which inspired me to make some comments focusing on the implications and opportunities for brands.

"The biggest opportunity for the expansion of social networks is to build bridges between these isolated islands (social networking sites) to deliver a more fulfilling, meaningful and productive experience. As I see it, we will start to see the social web not as a collection of distributed islands, but as one greater collective better known as a human network – a contextual and relationship-based network that consists of like-minded individuals no matter where their profile resides."

Context is key, and as is for now technology/the existing solutions is limiting our ability to strengthen or build new relationships. People do what other people do and people are also continuously seeking resonance. Enter the social colonization and most of all the era of social context.

As of now Facebook and Twitter is already our main source for news and information. They are also our main communication hub. As a brand you need to become a part of this flow of information. You have the chance of becoming more relevant than ever.

How? First of all you need to have a big ideal. Then create initiatives based on the ideal, tool or content, that helps groups of people with common niche passions to continuously strengthening their relationships or build new ones across different niche networking sites - seamlessly as possible. It´s not what your product does that matters most to people. It´s how they SOCIALIZE AROUND IT that matters. Facebook Connect and to some degree "sign in with Twitter" allows you as brand to become a part of this information flow. But you need to contribute with something that empowers those who create these information flows - people. And what´s coming is the possibility to join a new service that you as brand can make, where people can join and bring with them their data and friends so that you can serve your users instantly with customized content and already recommendations, history, stats from your existing network. Now that´s relevance and gratification on a whole new level.

"Portable IDs mean you’ll be able to flip a switch to tell Nike you’re a woman who runs 12 miles a week and immediately see the shoes that are best for you — along with input from experiences of your running buddies.”

Brian Solis - The Future of the Social Web. http://www.briansolis.com/2009/10/the-future-of-the-social-web/

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October 28, 2009

Evolution of Social Network sites

Excerpts from a great post w/links over at http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/the-history-and-evolution-of-social-media/

PRECURSORS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

1979 Usernets
Late seventies BBSs
1980 Onlineservices like CompuServe & Prodigy
1985 Genie
1988 IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
1995 ICQ

MAJOR SOCIAL NETWORKS

1997 Six Degrees. Purchased in 2000 for $125 million and shut down in 2001.
1999 LiveJournal.
2000 World Of Warcraft / MMORPGS
2002 Friendster. 90 million registered users, 90% users from asia. Popular with gay men, attendess of Burning Man and bloggers
2003 Hi5. 60 Million active members. Asia. Latin America and Central Africa.
2003 LinkedIn.
2003 MySpace. Customization possible.
2004 Multiply.
2004 Orkut. Google´s social network. 65 million users, mainly from Brazil and India.
2004 Facebook. Surpassed MySpace in 2008.
2007 iRovr. Only on iPhone.
2008 Kontain.

NICHE SOCIAL NETWORKS

2005 Ning. Platform for creating niche social networks. 1.5 million existing networks. No coding or programming knowledge required.

MEDIA SHARING

2003 Photobucket. Purchased by Fox in 2007 for $250 million
2004 Flickr. 3.6 billion images as of June 2009
2004 Revver. Sharing revenue 50/50 split with video creators.
2005 Youtube.

SOCIAL NEWS & BOOKMARKING

2003 Delicious.
2004 Digg.
2005 Reddit.

REAL TIME UPDATES

2006 Twitter
2007 Tumblr.
2009 Posterous. No initial signup is needed. Post content via email.

LIFESTREAMING & LIFECASTING

2006 Ustream
2006 Justin.tv. 41 million unique vistitors each month.
2007 Friendfeed. Purchased by Facebook 2009.

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October 28, 2009

The next great Social Network?

I like Google´s services and although I´ve mentioned earlier that there really is a battle between data vs humans going on, Google vs Facebook with all it´s implications for people, society and marketeers - I´ve always believed Google would try to go social something that´s been pretty obvious so no kudos to me for that... As I´m an avid user of services like Google Reader, Shared Items, Youtube, Gmail, Wave - yes I do use wave - it´s a great collaborative tool although still in it´s early stages (and probably is going to be emulated or taken by other companies), still the main question for mainstream adoption is as Steve Rubel points out;

"However, here's the big question - will consumers set up their Google profiles? And, if they do, will they link them to their social networks? If they are tech adept, yes, they will. But what about the rest of us? I am not so sure. This has to get as easy and as elegant to use as Facebook."

Google is way behind on this issue. There seems to be a knowledge gap that Google is not aware of. So although they launched Google Social Search which is awesome, for people, there seems to be a lack of understanding of contexts. Facebook Connect is a brilliant move from Facebook and enables a more rich communication at the moment. It allows for awesomeness for creators and participants. It allows for people to keep keep connected and inspired and meet new people within a relevant context. However Facebook is still much like a walled garden whereas Google is more diversified.

The question Google should understand people are asking themselves is not "What´s in it for me?" but "What´s in it for my group?"

Steve Ruble post.

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